Ooo look! An update!

You would almost thing I've forgetten about my blog with my VERY infrequent updates. I think things will slow down a little for me to catch my breath in the coming weeks - after my high school class reunion this weekend...

Lately, I've been in touch with old friends I haven't seen or heard from in about 20 years! I'm really very excited to see lots of my old classmates, some that I've been friends with since elementary school. We've already exchanged emails and reminisced about our times together. It's truly amazing the sorts of things that come back to you once you start talking about it. In preparation, I've dug up my high school annuals and pictures from "back in the day". I really wish I would have been more serious in my photography back then to have a better record of all the goofiness that went on with all of us.

Oh, just a little side note that some of you might find amusing. Most of you have heard of Johnny Knoxville I'm sure. Here's my tie-in. Johnny (then P.J. Clapp), was a freshman at my high school when I was a senior. He seemed normal back then. LOL!

Anyway... guess what I still have? My orange safety patrol helmet from 4th or 5th grade. I don't have the belt and badge. I think I had to turn those in. If I have time this weekend, I'm going to get a picture made of me standing at my old "posts". I'll have the helmet with me although it no longer fits as it should. If it did fit, that would be kinda weird.

I'm really looking forward to spending time with old friends. That'll be great!

I have some more exciting news... coming sometime in February '07, I'll be an uncle! How cool is that? I'm very happy for my sister and her husband. This also means I'll get to see my parents around then too as I'm sure they'll be coming back to the states for the birth and then for mom to help her out those first few weeks. That reminds me, I probably need to get my sis the book I get for pregnant friends... the "What to expect when you're expecting" one. From what I've heard, it's THE book to have for first-time moms.

That's all the big news for now. Oh, I did pick up an early birthday present for myself a few weeks ago. A Dunnett titanium snare drum. I looked into one of these a few years ago, but the price of them was prohibitive. Through a friend, I was able to now have one of my own. If you're a Dave Matthews fan and have watched the Live in Central Park concert DVD, then you've see what this snare looks like. Other than being .5" deeper (13X7 instead of 13X6.5), it's identical. Gold hardware, translucent purple finish, black hoops... mmmmm... and a sound to match the looks. VERY "crispy"! When I got the drum, I wasn't particularly enamored with the hoops that were on it. They were more of a vintage style hoop with claws. I changed those out for some more modern style triple-flanged black chrome hoops which I like the looks of better AND am used to playing on. The thing with the claws is that the come up over the edge of the hoop. When I'm playing rim shots, I would somtimes hit a claw instead of the hoop and get a funky kind of tone out of the drum. That's not an issue any more. :-)

Switching gears - Kyle's new home is coming along nicely. I rode by there with him yesterday to check it out. I didn't get to make it all the way through because of a huge storm that came through while we were there. There's no roof yet. Not even close. They are still framing the first floor. From the looks of it, the builder is probably going to start on the second floor soon. To me, one of the nicest features of the place will be the recording studio area above the garage. There will be a control room, drum room and a room for the guitar amps. We talked a little about some of the wiring that needs to be done to make those rooms as easy to use as possible. Neat huh?

Church went well today. Jack did a good job delivering the message and me and the band held the music together - for the most part. Kevin, our lead singer and rhythm guitarist was out of town on a retreat with some of the youth of our church leaving Pam to sing, Kyle on guitar and Jack S. on bass. Jack S. normally plays guitar but can fill in on bass as needed. (Our bassist was on the same retreat as Kevin) Jack had a moment in the first service where he couldn't read the music and the more he squinted, the worse it became. We came close to a train wreck (very close) but managed to keep the train on the rails somehow. I had a bit more to do today though as "Preaching Jack" needed me to assist with some illustrations, one of which involved me playing the intro to "Wipeout".

It looks like another weekend AND month is coming to a close. It's been a good one. I was able to take a nap both yesterday and today. That's always good. It was just WAY too hot and humid to do anything outside.

Time to wind down and hit the sack in a few mins.

Weekend fun and games.

Friday night I made it out to see Pirates of the Carribean Dead Man's Chest over in Huntsville. A local radio station had a costume contest to see who had the best looking pirate get up on. There were very few "good" ones and then just a bunch of goobers with tattered clothes on. Ultimately, a baby with a bandana doo-rag on won. Geez.

I spent Saturday morning doing stuff around the house including giving the dog a bath and giving my car a good washing and waxing. After my trip to Indy, I had quite a collection of bugs on the front bumper that I needed to get off of there. Packed up my camera after lunch and headed to the annual church picnic (the Pig Out) over on the Elk river. Had a great time eating and relaxing with good friends.

I had drum duty today at church. Besides a minor issue getting one of my drums tuned, all went well. Lot's of folks there today along with some old friends that showed up. That was nice. Tried having lunch at Red Lobster afterwards. Everything was going along nicely when a storm came along (I washed my car, rememeber?) and knocked out the power. Nice. We did get our cheese biscuits and salad though. Even though that didn't fill me up, it was better than nothing.

I had some time today to add a few more photos to my blog from my Seattle visit last month. Hope you enjoy them.

A view of downtown Seattle at dusk.

My dinner in the Space Needle restaurant - scallops, ahi tuna, shrimp and salmon. Mmmm good.

There was some cool architecture around too. Here's part of the "Experience Music Project" building. This was just a few hundred yards from Space Needle.

This is inside the Pike Street Fish Market where they are famous for flinging the fish around. I caught one in mid-flight in this shot. I looked like a super tourist as I had my coffee in one hand, camera in the other and my camera backpack in tow.

Out front getting ready to enjoy my drink on the streets of Seattle! It was a cool breezy day with temperatures in the low 60's. PERFECT coffee weather.

Here's the barrista in Starbucks making my latte. Yum!

Back to my Seattle visit... The sign inside the FIRST Starbucks store that opened.

You know what stinks?

Getting back from vacation...

I was moping around this evening feeling kinda down. After being away from work and having days filled with fun activities, returning to normal day to day stuff seems well, kinda depressing. I tried working on the new song we're playing this week at church and just wasn't getting it like I thought I would. That didn't help my mood. Sigh. I don't get bummed out very often or for very long, so this feeling should pass soon.

On a more positive note, I did get a lot done around the house on Monday and Tuesday. I got my livingroom cleaned up and no longer looking like a suitcase exploded in there. I also sorted through this huge pile of papers on my kitchen table. I can almost see the surface of it now. My drum room is straight as well after looking like the stock room of a music store after an earthquake. Speaking of drums, I rearranged my drums and went back to the conventional way of placing my rack toms directly above the kick drum instead of off to the side like I've had them for a few years. It's just a lot more ergonomic to have them arranged like this. The other way had a cool "look" to it, but I'm over that and more interested in things being easier to work with.

I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

Some of the crowd Sunday.

Using my small camera, this is a shot of the cars parking after qualifying. That's Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa there near their Ferrari's.

Me and the group at the track Saturday. We were just about to go find something to eat.

Reubens Barrichello in his factory Honda getting ready to blast down the pit lane exit. The bright yellow panel that's raised behind him is the fuel door. As soon as he releases the pit lane speed-limiter, that door will come down automatically and close.

Giancarlo Fisichella making a few adjustments before taking off in his Renault. On race day, he finished in third place.

Alex Wurtz, Williams' test driver, took time Friday to test different car setups to be used during the weekend.

Scott Speed - the only American driver in Formula One. He was walking back to the pits after suffering a problem with his car just a few yards down the pit lane exit.

Back to Bama

After a short week at work, I made my way up to Indianapolis for the Formula One US Grand Prix festivities. My drive up was pleasant as I had no fixed schedule to meet. I stopped over in Nashville at Fork's Drum Closet to pick up new heads for my drums as well as a few pairs of drumsticks. Next was a stop just before the Kentucky line at Jeff Wald's place - a drumming friend of mine whose wife recently received her real estate license and needed some headshots for some of her materials. I was happy to have been able to help out. Played on Jeff's drums a bit then had a bite to eat before continuing on to Indy. I checked in at the hotel without incident and soon was off to sleep.

Friday morning came a bit earlier as I was in the eastern time zone now instead of central. After a quick breakfast, I headed to join my friends at the BMW Corral and get all my paperwork and vehicle pass for race day. Finally, I was at the track. This time, I was only planning to take photos on Friday so I'm not hauling around all my camera equipment the rest of the weekend. I got several good shots, some of which I'll post here and then put the rest on my photo gallery (the link is in the column on the right). I got a good shot of Scott Speed, the only American driver in F1. During practice, he had a problem with his car as he was going down the pit lane exit and he walked right by where I was on his way back to the pits.

I got my shopping done on Friday also. Not too much this year, just 2 shirts. I try to get that done right away as later on in the weekend, vendors run out of the size I need and all they have left are XXL stuff. I spent the remainder of the day moving around the track and hanging out with friends.